Ms. Sanders Case Study

Ms. Sanders is the Associate Director of the trachoma program at The Carter Center (TCC). She began her presentation by discussing her career and like previous presenters, she did not have a set path into public health. Ms. Sanders studied political science as an undergraduate student, then she worked on HIV in the Peace Corps, and then she began working for the Carter Center. Ms. Sanders then worked for NATO for a while, but then she went back to The Carter Center and began her work on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). She also obtained two Master’s degrees in Public Health and Political Economics because she thought both were valuable in approaching public health problems. I was amazed at how much she had done and I started thinking about previous speakers and people I have met at the CDC; it made me realize that public health folks are extremely motivated. With regard to her past and current work at the Carter Center, Ms. Sanders …show more content…
Sanders talked about trachoma and she went over most of the information that was on the video. Trachoma is preventable and antibiotics and eyelid surgery can help. The issue lies on behavioral changes. They have cultural norms in which a latrine would not be appropriate (e.g., men and women cannot defecate in the same place). Additionally, there were some remarks that I found intriguing. For example, Ms. Sanders stated that people cannot swallow pills and thus, they were given syrup. I wonder if they knew that ahead of time or if they found out during their previous visits to the areas. In addition, Ms. Sanders talked about an interesting technique in making people use the bathroom in latrines: Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). An example of CLTS is when an interventionist places a piece of poop in food and the individuals in the community are asked if they would eat the food. The community members usually say no and then the interventionist states that they are doing essentially partaking in the same